The motorsport fraternity looked on with great interest as the Nissan Motorsport division set about development of the GT-R LM Nismo, a front-wheel drive LMP1 racecar. But despite the promise of straight line pace, the vehicle did not quite live up to expectation at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans – finishing just 234 laps while the top 5 in the LMP1 category all managed in excess of 390 laps.
According to Sportscar 365, the fate of the GT-R LM Nismo will be decided this week in Japan. This after the Nissan Motorsports team struggled to get the programme rolling early for the 2015 World Endurance Championship, and faced additional difficulty at the Sarthe.
“We made an attempt that did not prove fruitful. We must reassess the strategy. We wanted to be different and competitive but we’ve only been different,” said company CEO Carlos Ghosn.
While it doesn’t seem that Nissan will pull the plug on its Le Mans programme, the meetings deciding the fate of the GT-R LM Nismo could very well mean that the Japanese outfit might return to a more traditionally styled LMP1 for next year’s attempt at Le Mans glory. It’s also important to note that while Audi was at the height of its powers, manufacturers like Peugeot and Toyota also had a tough time putting up a real fight to the German team. It also took the great Porsche outfit two years before it recapture the overall title, and that with 16 overall victories to its name. Nissan has never won at Le Mans.
While the bigwigs figure it all out, the team is preparing for more evaluation at the 6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas on 19 September.
